Atlantis Risen
by shadowsofthealmighty
Summary: A US spy satelite has picked up pictures of a structure in the Atlantic Ocean. The Navy dispatches a subarine containing an experimental project on board. However after Lamb, there is a new leader of Rapture... Mainly focuses on OCs, Rated to be safe
1. Chapter 1: This Red October

Atlantis Risen

Chapter One: This Red October

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tennenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

03:21 October 14, 1971

Atlantic Ocean

Everything felt heavy, that was the best word for it. All of his senses were dulled. His hearing was muffled, his touch was numbed, and his vision was clouded by a heavy steam. All that can be heard in his metal prison was his own heavy breathing. Private Henry Morris, the metal man, thought to himself, _When can I take this damn thing off_?

Suddenly there was movement on either side of his head, something pulling, tugging. There was a sharp jerk and soon a small vent kicked to life. The gas was pulled from his vision, revealing the glass plate that allowed him to see into yet another metal prison.

The man responsible for the jerk, a nameless technician, had his hands on either side of a giant helmet. He looked out of place among the dark outfits of the submarine officers. Machinery flashed against the wall of the USS James K. Polk as the silent soldiers manipulated the quiet submarine.

The technician's hands moved to one side of the helmet and started fiddling with a device near to it. There was a click, a fizz of static, and suddenly, "…hear me now? Can you hear me now?"

"Yes sir." Henry responded, taking his own left hand and giving a little salute. He glanced at his hand, covered with a thick fabric glove and reinforced by pieces of metal, much like the rest of his suit. He looked down at himself, well, he looked as best as he could with a large helmet obscuring his view of his lower body. Henry's feet were covered by a massive pair of boots that made his feet feel heavy just standing there. _You'd think with all of this money they're putting into this, they'd give me some more agility_, he thought.

"All right, moving around in there fine?" The technician said, giving an inspection of the suit itself. "Breathing normally? Wiggle your fingers for me…"

"I'm fine." Henry said back, wiggling his fingers in front of the technician's face.

"You'd better be, that's some expensive hardware you have on." Henry turned around and saw the captain approaching them. He was an old man, a veteran of the Korean War. He was assigned to Vietnam for a year before being sent out on this mission in the Atlantic. "All right, quick rebriefing. Our satellites have picked up something in the Atlantic Ocean, a structure of some sorts. It's not Icelandic, not British, and, we hope, not Russian. As soon as we get there, you're going out in that fancy diving suit of yours and give us a picture of the seafloor while we get a better look at the structure itself. Got it bigshot?"

"Yes sir." As Henry saluted more whole-heartedly than with the technician.

"Captain, we're approaching the site." One of the officers called out.

"Down periscope!" The captain called out as he moved towards the center of the vessel. A periscope descended before his eyes and he grabbed it as soon as it came to a stop.

"So, what do you think?" The technician asked, turning to Henry. "Might be the Russians?"

"I don't know, but from what I've heard that there's been rumors circulating since the 60's about…"

"God damn it."

Everyone in the submarine fell silent. The captain turned away from the periscope, white as a sheet. He stepped backwards, shaking his head disbelievingly. Henry walked to the periscope and looked through.

Atlantis.

That was the only way to describe it. Towering buildings, obscured by sea life and grime rose from the dark abyss. Their shapes illuminated by several buildings in the center that emit light similar to electric bulbs. In fact, many of the buildings could have been picked up from New York City and dropped into the abyss.

"What's going on?" The technician asked. Henry stepped back from the periscope, allowing the technician to get a look. "Oh Jesus Christ…" the technician stated moments later, "this can't be real. I mean… this can't be."

"Sir! We're picking up something heading towards us!" An officer shouted as sirens started blaring. The captain was shaken from his shock as he was pulled over towards the radar station. Henry was deafened by the sudden movement, tossed by the rush of officers. Mere moments later, another even more threatening word was pronounced.

"Torpedo!"

There was an echoing thud followed by a deafening explosion. The lights flickered and went out. Henry was tossed to his side and everything went quiet again. All that existed in his world was shapeless movement, causeless effect, and hopeless action. A ping echoed off of his armor as he felt a rush of water start to enter the submarine and land on his suit. Suddenly another explosion rocket the sub.

There was light.

There was fury.

And then there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2: Odysseus Lodge

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Two: The Odysseus Lodge

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tennenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

Silence echoed in Henry's head. Swimming images faded in and out before his closed eyes. Every part of his body was begging to just lie still, to not move. Unfortunately, Henry knew better than that.

Slowly, with a surprising lightness, Henry stood up. All he could hear was a hiss of air that filled his helmet with breathable gas. Although he was lighter, he felt surrounded on all sides, as though he was moving through…

…_Water, of course_ Henry thought as his hand moved to the side of his helmet. Flipping a switch, a small flashlight turned on, illuminating the sea floor around him. He could see nearby buildings illuminated by the structure in the center of the underwater city. Behind him…

Red fluid swam by his eyes.

Inside the diving suit he shivered, realizing that everyone on that ship is now gone to that big place in the sky. As he oriented himself, he started a list of his current predicament. _I'm in a suit on the bottom of the ocean in hostile territory all alone. I have a limited supply of air and the only possible nearby supply is towards the center of aforementioned hostile territory. I have no weapons, no communications, and no clue where the hell I am. I guess there's only one choice_. Henry started to trudge towards the lights of the underwater city.

The nearest structure featured a wide glass front revealing a shadowed interior. No light came from this building, but it seemed to not be flooded. Besides, Henry soon spotted what seemed to be a bulkhead close to the structure, so it seemed to be his best option for now.

He trudged to the massive steel door and pulled it open. It unwillingly slid open to reveal a flooded antechamber. Machinery dotted the walls and a single large lever was present to the side. As Henry walked in, he could have sworn he saw a quick movement from within the glass-walled structure. Cautiously, he proceeded into the bulkhead and pulled the lever.

The door slammed shut behind him as air started to be pumped into the room. Like the ballast tanks of a submarine on its way to the surface, the chamber was soon filled with breathable air. On the upside, the ambient air caused his tank to stop using up his supply of air and start refilling. On the downside, he felt heavier again. The door in front slid open automatically to reveal what appeared to be a maintenance hall. His flashlight illuminating his path, Henry proceeded into the building.

The hall was dark and quiet. Even after Henry managed to clumsily reactivate his hearing apparatus all his ears were treated to was the echoing din of silence. Even the pipes on the wall made no more than the occasional eerie groan as he made his way towards the end of the hall. The hall dead-ended in a door that was slightly ajar. To his left he managed to find another door marked CENTRAL BREAKER. Thanking his relatively decent fortune, he opened the door and walked through.

The room, unsurprisingly, was dark, but not as empty as the hall. A central console bore a switch, possibly a breaker, in a glass box. Henry struggled to open the box to no avail, only after noticing that it was sealed by a lock. Sighing mentally, Henry sat on a nearby crate. As he rested, he looked around the breaker room. Screens hung over the walls and wires crossed this way and that. The empty silence of the room gave it the presence of a horror film.

Still, his flashlight illuminated a strange device across from him. Standing up, he walked to it and picked it up. It looked much like an old-fashioned cassette player, dusty with age. A cassette was already placed in it. Pressing a button on the face, the device came to life and proclaimed…

_If you damn engineers can't remember to keep maintenance locked, then you can't keep the more senile old folks from wandering in and playing with the switches. That's why, per my position as landlord of the Odysseus Lodge, I have installed this box to protect our most crucial electrical component. If you won't do your job, by golly let me do mine. If you happen to lose your copy of the key, I'll let you use my spare in my office. Oh, and a memo to the staff, I don't care what your plans are; you're here for the New Years. And don't let me catch you splicing on the job; that stuff's going to kill you one of these days…_

The tape ended, the little red light going out. Henry set the device down. He didn't understand what some of the message meant, but he did understand _key_ and _breaker_. _Gotta find this guy's office_ Henry thought as he left the breaker room and walked through the other door.

This time, he walked into the large room on the other side of the glass window. Water covered the floor of a spacious living room-esque area. Furniture was thrown over, tables were smashed, and a clotted red substance covered most of the walls. It looked as though a war was fought over the room. A section of decoration covered some sort of large door, presumably the entrance to the living room. _I'll worry about that later…_ Henry thought as he started towards a flight of stairs.

"Here now, that's my money and I'll thank you for not taking it."

"Bullshit! It's my money, and you know it."

Henry stopped at the foot of the stairs. Apparently he wasn't alone in this dark place. He slowly sneaked up the large staircase towards the sounds of the voices. He prayed that the voices obscured his footfalls. He peaked over the edge of the stairs and caught sight of two hunched figures rustling through the pockets of some rotting corpse.

"All right, you take the money, I call this." One figure said, removing a half-full bottle of whisky out of the corpse's suit pocket.

"Oy! You can't drink that! I call that first!"

"Yeah Right, I found it, so it's… wait… what's that?"

The first figure had turned and spotted the top of Henry's helmet. The other looked over his friend's shoulder and also spotted it. Mentally crossing his fingers, Henry slowly climbed up the stairs. The two figures fell back in shock.

"Oh-ho! A metal daddy's come and graced us with his presence!"

"Come on tin-face, where's your little girl?"

The two figures had stood up, revealing that they carried heavy lead pipes which they swung haphazardly. Henry stood his ground, silently daring one of them to attack him.

And he got his wish. One of the figures lunged at him madly. Henry was thrown off for a second by the wildly distorted face of the figure, but regained his composure quickly enough to grab the figure's hand and fling him into the wall. The first's friend also lunged at Henry, but his attack was reflected off of one of the plates of armor. Henry swing his fist around, breaking the second man's nose and forcing him over the rail. The first had, miraculously, gotten up and jumped on top of Henry.

With a quick swing, Henry threw the man off and into the wall. As he started getting up again, Henry slammed his fist into the assailant's face, putting him out for now. Standing, Henry rolled his shoulders and continued on his way.

The upper floor was largely deserted save for the looted corpse. A dark machine lay in the corner on its side; it appeared to be some sort of vending machine, but he wasn't quite sure. Another hall stretched before him and, seeing no other available option, followed its length.

The hall had doors that lead to offices and filing rooms, but the one at the end, OFFICE OF GREGORY HESTON, LANDLORD, caught his attention. He arrived at the door only to find it locked.

_Guess I have to find another way in…_ Henry thought briefly. After two seconds of waiting, he kicked the door in. _Yeah, right_. He forced his way into the lightless office. It was strewn with papers and covered with a thick layer of dust. Nothing seemed to be touched for a decade. After only minutes of searching, however, he managed to find a key similar in size to the lock in the Breaker Room in the upper drawer of the desk. _Henry Morris: 1, Unknown City: 0_.

Suddenly, loud footsteps started echoing down the hall. Not two, but three figures burst through the door into the office. The two thieves, who had recovered in impossible time, had been joined by a friend: a friend with a revolver.

Hnery dived under the desk, avoiding the rain of bullets. He pulled open a bottom drawer. _Please have a weapon somewhere_. Luckily, he pulled what appeared to be a Luger out from under a stack of folders and started firing over the top of the desk. After he heard a cry of pain from one of his attackers, he risked sitting up to get a better shot. The thief with the revolver had fallen back onto his colleagues. After emptying his clip, the assailants weren't going to be getting up any more. He grabbed a clip from the Luger's hiding place and decided the keep the gun for himself. _Besides,_ _This place is full of crazies_ Henry thought as his heavy boots stepped over the bead bodies.

He walked down the hall, key in one hand, Luger in the other. Fortunately, he encountered no resistance as he made his way back towards the Breaker Room. Stepping through the door, he checked one last time to make sure no more insane people were going to jump out form the shadows and try to kill him. Satisfied, he inserted the key into the box, opened it, and flipped the breaker.

Suddenly, life came back. Electric lights flooded the once dark rooms and halls with incandescent light. What was once obscured by mystery was illuminated in glorious light. He turned around and headed for the door.

But suddenly the lights went out, the door slammed shut behind him, and everything was dark once more. However, it was not silent. An echoing voice yelled from the darkness.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

_It's longer, I know, but I really wanted to stop at this cliffhanger. Next Chapter: The King of Atlantis_


	3. Chapter 3: The King of Atlantis

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Three: The King of Atlantis

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tennenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Henry spun around as light once more flooded into the room, but not from the overhead bulbs. The many screens in the room had suddenly turned on, displaying what appeared to be a logo written on wood or something similar; it was hard to tell in grainy black and white. The logo proclaimed in bold letters ATLANTIS UTILITIES. The sheer boldness of the angular letters gave off an aura of control.

The voice continued, "I made myself quite clear that there was to be _no_ power any section unless _I_ authorized it and I do not recall ever authorizing the return of _this_ section's power; it's a drain to the whole system! Who are you? One of Atlas' remaining supporters? He's dead you know, dead for years! What about one of Lamb's 'family?' Dammit, where's that camera…"

The image shifted and now showed a young man wearing a black suit sitting at a desk, flipping a switch on a box next to him. Despite the suit being torn, dirty, and at least a full size too small for his tall frame, the man still emanated elegant power. Gray eyes glared from under heavy brows with fixed determination. Tight lips clenched under a strong nose. Dark brown hair remained neatly combed and washed despite the rest of his appearance. One look told Henry that this was not a man to be trifled with.

The man looked to face the screen and his focused visage broke to surprise and bewilderment. "What the…" It was not long, however, before the man narrowed his eyes and got another look at Henry. "No, you're not a big daddy… For one, you're too short. Plus that suit is completely foreig…"

Cold understanding settled onto the man's face. "You're from the sub, aren't you? I thought I got rid of that nuisance. But, never you mind. This little… upset will be dealt with momentarily by my soldiers…"

"…Now look here…" Henry managed to get past his lips.

"I see you are not mute, that's good enough. But it's still inconsequential. You are not welcome in _my_ kingdom and I will enjoy watching you be blown to pieces."

Henry turned back and tried to open the heavy door to no avail. "No escaping my wrath, intruder." Henry turned back to the screens when he suddenly noticed something. One of the lower left screens had stopped displaying the man's face and now was covered by static. Out of the mess a lone word appeared: _Friend_.

Henry narrowed his eyes under the heavy helmet as the message changed: _Open the console. Remove green wire. Insert blue wire_. Then the message faded. Henry still looked at the screen for a little while after the message from an unknown ally vanished. _Again, I have no choice_ Henry thought as he bent down to the console.

"What are you doing?" The man asked coldly as Henry removed the plate covering the console. Wires were stung about the interior, but it was little time before he located the red one. "Hey! Don't mess with…" But the screens shifted to static as soon as Henry pulled the wire. Grabbing a dangling blue wire, he plugged it into the slot that the red wire formerly occupied.

The image shifted to what appeared to be a lighthouse over water, a picture quite similar to those brought back from the spy satellite, with the words PLEASE STAND BY written across it. Moments later, a new face replaced that of Henry's captor. This face was old, at least fifty, and covered with many wrinkles. However, this was not a face softened by age, but one made stronger by it.

"Hello? Testing… testing… can you hear me?" The man asked over the screen.

"Yes, what's going on?" Henry asked back.

"All explanations in due time, but you have a team of splicers headed your way and I doubt you can take them all on, _especially_ since they have Tommy guns."

Rmembering the weapons of gangster lore, Henry nodded and said, "Fine, fine. What am I supposed to do?"

"There's a maintenance crawlspace to your right, I think you might be able to fit in there despite your bulky diving suit. On the other end is a maintenance room. Exit there and head towards Demeter's Garden, you should see a brick entryway into the old zoo." Henry suddenly heard footsteps quickly approaching. "Hurry! I'll contact you later!"

As the running splicers drew nearer and nearer, Henry threw himself at the obscured crawlspace and slammed the entrance shut just as the door was pushed open and a rain of Armor-piercing rounds poured into the Breaker Room, shattering screens, destroying wiring, and annihilating everything around.

On his elbows, Henry forced himself to crawl down the seemingly endless tunnel. His flashlight turned off to avoid capture, he blindly reached for anything that could be the end. Finally, he met a blissful grate which he slid open to reveal another dark room. Well, I should expect no less by now Henry thought as he crawled out and straightened up.

Sure enough, he found himself in a maintenance room, though this one seemed not less undisturbed than a trailer hit by a tornado. Crates were flung wildly about, a tool box was hanging from the ceiling by an exposed pipe, and a skeleton lay submerged in a pool of stagnant water. Henry thanked the lord that he was unable to smell the room of carnage.

"You there?" Came a voice from inside his helmet.

"The hell?!" Henry cried out, shocked by the surprising voice.

"Shhhh! Careful, don't want to raise any splicers. It's only me; name's Victor Cobb. I found a radio system in your suit and I patched into it. It's my job to see you get out of here alive."

Henry was calmed by his savior's reassuring speech. "My name's Henry, Henry Morris. So… splicers… that's what these… _people_ are?"

"Yeah, but I really don't think they're people any more. The splicing has gone to their heads and all of them are mad, raving beasts."

"Alright, I'll ask about 'splicing' later, but would you kindly tell me who that _bastard_ was?"

"That _bastard_, an apt word for him, is John Reemus, the 'King' of this little city here."

"John Reemus?" Henry replied. He could tell, after only meeting the King just a minute ago, that he was going to hate him.

_Next Chapter: Demeter's Garden_


	4. Chapter 4: Demeter's Garden

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Four: Demeter's Garden

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tennenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

In a massive hall unseen for years, a metal door was moved to the side by a foreign man in a metal diving suit. Henry looked out over the hall and saw the signs of a world in decay. A large brick structure, most likely an entrance of some sort, was overgrown with what appeared to be hot pink coral. Seaweed and barnacles obscured advertisements for man-made products. A sign proclaiming DEM TER S GAR was tangled in similar plant life.

"Wow. This place must've been something…" Henry said to himself.

"Yeah, it was something." Victor Cobb replied over the radio. "The place was Rapture's Zoo, a place where children could be amazed by animals, like up on the surface. It was one of the first places to be shut down by Ryan, however; admiring the surface is admiring the world we left behind. The animals died out. Still, the old botanical gardens became a sort of mini-Arcadia."

"Right…" Henry said, processing all of the data. "I assume Rapture is the name of this whole place?"

"Yeah, the old businessman Andrew Ryan built this back in the forties as a retreat from the world of looters and parasites. He brought a bunch of us down with him because we shared his common idea of mankind being supreme. Well, I have to say I didn't like having my money taken away from me, and I wanted a chance to advance. I had a master's degree in engineering that was sitting in my office gathering dust, so I decided to join."

"What did you do down here?"

"I was a welder." After a sigh, he continued, "Someone had to keep Rapture running, and that meant that some of us became the working class. Still, never sided with Atlas, nor Lamb, not anyone against anything. Not till this guy…"

As Henry made his way towards the brick entrance, he asked Henry, "And who's Atlas and Lamb?"

"Atlas popped up in 1959. He was sort of a big revolutionary leader. That's the civil war now. Things were blowing up all over the place. Splicers took control of the city. Nearly got my ass blown off by a Nitro down in Neptune's Bounty. It seemed as though Ryan was going to win, he pumped the air full of pheromones that made splicers bow to he beck and call, but then… Jack came."

"Jack?"

"His plane crashed in the ocean and he arrived here. I don't know much about him; Tennenbaum would know more. I was holed up in Siren Alley at the time. I know is that after he showed up, Ryan died and Atlas vanished. Then he disappeared with Tennenbaum and a bunch of Little Sisters…"

"Who?

"Another story for another time. What happened next was Sophia Lamb showed up and started running the place. She made the Family of Rapture, got all the splicers together under one big happy roof. She did… terrifying things… to those of us that didn't agree. Tennenbaum came back and that's when I met her. I started helping her out as she was running from the old Atlantis Express maintenance areas. Some other bloke named Delta showed up, took out Lamb, and escaped as well."

"All right, I think I get it now." Henry said, walking down rows of former cages now overgrown with glowing plant life. "Where does our little King fit into this?"

"Remember when I said someone had to build Rapture? Atlantis Utilities did all of that; they laid the electrical system, monitored the pipes, and kept things from falling into little pieces. The old boss, Paul Reemus, was put out of business when Ryan incorporated it into Ryan Industries. I saw the boss and his son once when they were inspecting the construction of the new Bathysphere station down by Fort Frolic."

"And the son's name is John?"

"Exactly. When the Civil War broke out they fell out of favor with Ryan who believed that they were going to betray him."

"What happened?"

"…Lets just say that what did happen should not be witnessed by anyone, especially someone as mentally fragile as John Reemus."

"How did he escape?"

"Dunno. He simply went up and vanished, only to reappear last year and proclaim himself King of Rapture. He's gotten the pheromone system back online and now the splicers are obeying him explicitly. He's organized them into an army, taken control of power, and is starting to build…something."

"What?"

"Whatever it is, he needs all of the power he can muster to do so."

Henry made it to the end of the short overgrown zoo. "And he most likely has my ticket back to the surface too, right?"

"I wasn't going to say that, but maybe we can get you back topside. I need you to get through the Botanical Gardens and head to the Bathysphere station. Then, take the trip to the Fontaine's Home for the Poor Annex. It's under construction, so he shouldn't have control over anything down there."

"Might have a little problem getting there Vic," Henry said, pushing against a large metal door that barred his way, "This door won't open."

"Oh, maybe it has a control switch; some of the older areas of Rapture have them instead of automatic doors."

Henry located the switch on the side of the door. Pulling this, he found it to be jammed by some mechanical failure. "No dice."

"Damn. We need to get that door open for you…"

Suddenly there was a spark, a sudden jolt of energy through the air. Briefly some lights flickered on and the sound of a gramophone could be heard playing, "Somewhere Beyond the Sea" briefly before the lights went out again. "Um…Vic? The lights started flashing."

"Hmm…that might be because some faulty breaker is causing some sort of electricity to pass through here. Maybe there's something nearby that you can use?"

Henry looked towards where the gramophone had come from and saw a sign leading to the HUNTER'S LOUNGE. "All right, I'll see what I can do." Drawing his Luger, Henry proceeded slowly towards the lounge.

The Odysseus Lodge's flooding looked like a mere puddle when compared to the flooding that obscured ninety percent of the floor. The entire place was ransacked. The bar was completely emptied, some broken bottles smashed on the floor. Once lavish decorations were rusted and decayed by the passage of time.

_Wait a minute, I'm a in a metal suit in a pool of water in a room with an electrical fault. Right… not the best idea I've had today_. Henry quickly stepped out of the flooded floor and onto a raised area whose only ornamentation was an upturned table.

No sooner than he stepped out of the water than another zap of electricity went through the air. The lights flickered back to life and the gramophone resumed playing. However, another voice was added to this new land.

"My daddy's SMATER than Einstein, STRONGER than Hercules, and can light a fire with the SNAP of his fingers!" Henry spun around to see a large pink vending machine with two little girls on either side glowing with electricity. "Are you as food as my daddy mister?" Henry slowly approached the machine. The vending machine finished with, "Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't! Smart daddies get spliced, at the Gardens!"

"Vic? What am I looking at here?" Henry said over his radio. "It looks like a pink vending machine with two little girls on either side." Suddenly a surge of electricity dimmed the lights and the machine shorted out. A canister of red liquid dropped from a slot as the machine powered down for good. "And it just dropped something with red liquid in it."

"Ahh…That would be a Gatherer's Garden, they… Say, what does the container say?"

Henry picked up the glass container and read off to Victor, "It says, Electrobolt. It has a syringe of some sort next to it."

"Ahhhhh…Um…Well...This is convenient." The line went silent. "Listen Henry, I have an idea, but you're not going to like it."

Something in Victor's voice made Henry wary. "What is it?"

"Um…would you kindly inject yourself with that?"

"WHAT?! Hell no! Are you crazy? I heard that machine talk about splicing; is this what that stuff is?"

"In a way, but you really need to…"

"Forget it! Try something else."

"Look that's all the options we really…"

Suddenly the line was taken over by static. "Vic? Hello?"

"'Vic' isn't here anymore." John Reemus' harsh voice came down the line. "You had your chance to die, and now I'm just going to have to try _harder_. You should stop messing with me intruder; I am not a man to be messed with."

Suddenly a siren sounded out. Henry looked around in panic. Taking a quick look at the vial in his hands, he decided _Now or never_. With a swift move he pulled out the syringe, sucked out the red liquid, pulled off his left glove, and injected himself with it.

Pain is a word used to describe a toothache, a splinter, a migrane.

This was agony.

Henry fell to the ground, screaming for his very life. Searing heat scorched his arm as the very neurons of his forearms started melding together. The heat travelled up his arm and through his shoulder, increasing in intensity. Soon the tendrils of fire reached his brain and just as he thought he couldn't take anymore, the violent agony ceased and Henry fell to the ground, his mind fogged by the memory of the torture.

He looked up from the floor to see shapes, wild shapes wielding clubs of some sort running towards him through the Lounge. Out of some newfound instinct, Henry lifted his left hand, which was now crossed with tendrils of glowing blue, and flexed a new muscle in his mind.

A bolt of blue energy shot out of his fingertips and into the water that the attacking splicers had just jumped into. Like a dozen flailing ragdolls, the splicers fell into the water stone dead, electrocuted by the newcomer to the splicing world.

Heavily dazed, Henry staggered upright and wandered across the dry floor, feeling the floor groan beneath him. Finally he looked up to face four uniformed figures in the doorway. Each one bore in his hands a Tommy gun. There was a click as the soldier splicers lifted their guns. There was a click as they readied them to fire.

And there was a sudden crack as one of the floorboards beneath Henry suddenly gave way. This was soon followed by the rest spectacularly collapsing, sending Henry down a long, dark drop to a room formerly obscured by the presence of the Lounge. With a sodden splash, Henry fell into a vat of orange-red liquid and blacked out.

_Next Chapter: Tennenbaum's Triumph_


	5. Chapter 5: Tennenbaum's Triumph

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Five: Tenenbaum's Triumph

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

Slowly, Henry came to, air being pumped into his mask. His visor was clogged with am opaque reddish-orange liquid that obscured his vision. He rose himself from the metal floor of the vat and tried to push himself to the surface of the liquid, swimming through the dense liquid. Finally he broke to the surface and saw his dark, empty room.

_Great, more darkness_ Henry thought as he flipped his flashlight on again. The room appeared to be what used to be some sort of laboratory. Although the structure looked more like a bunker, tables and scientific equipment lay abandoned here. The most notable figure in the room was the large vat of some unknown chemical that Henry had just fallen onto, breaking through the protective cover. The place did not look ransacked. Instead, it seemed as though it was evacuated; anything that could be moved was.

Henry pulled himself out of the vat and landed on the floor of the lost lab. Immediately, he fell to his knees, head still spinning from the injection. He took a look at his hand; glowing blue lines like veins covered his hand and upper arm. Sighing, he pulled his glove off of a hook that was attached to his waist and covered his hand yet again. The glowing lines vanished beneath the reinforced cover.

Henry soon felt well enough to stand, and soon found himself walking towards the nearest bench. It was completely empty save for an audio diary hidden amongst some scraps. He decided to leave it be; not all stories here are necessarily important.

He turned and his flashlight illuminated an ajar door that, presumably, lead out of this bunker. Seeing no other alternative (_I wonder if this is going to be a recurring theme_ Henry thought), he pushed the door open and walked out into the hall. The hall was concrete and reinforced. He could see clearly that this was meant to be a hidden bunker, but the arrangement of the setup in the other room showed that it wasn't meant to house the laboratory. He soon found himself at what appeared to be a cellar door which he slowly pushed open.

Outside, in the rubble outside of the lounge that he was at moments ago, a lone figure stood. The splicer wore what could have been a police uniform at one time but was now restitched with the logo of Atlantis Utilities. By the way he held himself, the splicer was clearly a soldier, or at least knew how to act like one. The Tommy gun in his hands caused Henry to inwardly groan, seeing as his Luger had vanished when he fell through the floor.

Suddenly he remembered that guns weren't his only weapon now. Pulling off the glove, he flexed his upper arm towards the soldier splicer. A jolt of electricity immobilized him, causing the soldier to drop his gun. Jumping out, Henry grabbed the machine gun and slammed the butt of it into the splicer's face. It went down and out, leaving Henry with a more than able replacement for his lost pistol.

Static returned to his radio, but soon a voice returned, "Hello? Henry, are you there?"

"Victor! Yeah, I'm okay now. That thing you told me to take gave me… quite a jolt."

"Ah, yes. Electrobolt is a nifty little plasmid. Er, plasmids are sort of things that allow you to splice yourself weapons. We've got everything from Electrobolt to Insect Swarm."

"Please tell me you don't mean actual insects?"

"Er…no…?"

Henry sighed and turned to face the inoperable door. "Okay, I have the plasmid. What now?'

"There should be no problem with the electrical system; the gears must just be out of alignment. Give it a good zap."

Henry zapped the door with a bolt of electricity, causing the door to sputter and then open. "All right! Damn, this is starting to take the energy out of me."

"Plasmids feed on EVE, this sort of chemical that allows them to function. Try to find an EVE hypo somewhere…"

"Is it a blue liquid in a syringe?" Henry asked, spotting a corpse laying on a bench.

"Yes it is, why?"

"I just found some." Henry reached over and grabbed the syringe from the corpse's pocket.

"Looks like luck is on your side. First the plasmid, now this."

"It isn't always on my side." Henry replied, stepping into the botanical gardens. The plant life had overgrown entire walkways, climbed up walls, and obscured things like benches, trash cans, and dead bodies. With nobody to tend it, the plants took control.

"The Bathysphere station is at the end of this garden, right?"

"Correct. Hurry, I don't want to risk you being out in the open another minute. John could be sending a pack of his soldiers your way right now."

Henry nodded (despite Victor's inability to see him) and proceeded to hike through the plants. Walkways were a thing of the past; shrubs and trees made it impossible to tell where the old visitors to this park under the sea had trod. All that was left was underwater woodland.

Henry soon came across a sign half-obscured by vines. Pushing them aside, he gladly read the words RAPTURE METRO embossed in brass. Turning to where the door should be, however, his hopes fell. A tree had grown right in front of the door and prevented him from getting by.

"It's never easy, isn't it?" Henry said to himself.

"What is it now Henry?"

"There's a tree blocking the way. How am I supposed to get by it?"

"Well, that is a predicament. Maybe there is an axe or something in a tool shed. Or maybe there could be another way around through maintenance areas. Or, most likely…"

Victor's silence made Henry nervous, "What?"

"Well… there's this plasmid…"

"NO." Henry cut off Victor. "There is no way I am going through that again."

"It…it gets easier… so I've been told…"

"God damnit…All right. What's this plasmid?"

"It's called Incinerate."

"Okay, I can see how that'll help. But I can't exactly expect a Gatherer's Garden to short and pop out one of those. How much is it?"

"It doesn't cost money. It costs ADAM."

"…Okay… what is ADAM and how do I get it?"

Suddenly an explosion from far off caused Henry to jump a little. In the distance, he could see lights, red and yellow. There was a roar, like from a wild beast, and the sound of gunfire. And out of the chaos Henry's ears picked up a scream, like from a child.

"Victor! There's a child down here!"

"What? Wait, Henry! That's no child!" But this was to no avail as Henry ignored Victor and ran off after the noise.

Years ago, Henry had a little sister. He was 18, she was 10. She was always laughing and playing with he older brother. One night, heading home from school, they were attacked by a mugger. She screamed for the first and last time in her life.

Henry didn't want to see that happen again.

Pushing through the undergrowth, he subconsciously noticed that the gunfire had stopped and the roar of the beast had died into a low moan and then silence. Still, he could hear crying.

Bursting through a hedge of tall grass, he found himself in the middle of what used to be a plaza to sit and admire the plants. Chunks of the ground were blown away by a massive explosion. The bodies of three splicers, two male, one female, lay on the ground. Lying in the center of the chaos was a large diving suit, like Henry's but far bulkier. A drill was attached to the suit, but that didn't bother him right now. What did bother him was the splicer advancing on the small crying figure in a dress.

The splicer looked up, her face mutated by splicing and torn by combat. "Oh, not another one. Stand back, this ADAM's mine!" The splicer raised a pistol but was taken out by a controlled burst of Tommy gun fire.

Henry lowered his gun and approached the crying figure. In a soft voice, he asked, "Hey, are you all right?"

However he recoiled when the innocent little girl turned around. Her eyes were glowing yellow and hollow. Like a zombie her face took on a pale color that gave her the appearance of death. In her hand, she held an old large needle that was attached to a nearly empty vial of red liquid, much like the plasmid. The needle was coated in blood.

"Henry? Henry?! Answer me Henry!"

"I'm here… what…I…"

"Did you have to fight the Big Daddy?! The massive bastard in the suit?"

"I…no…but…what is it?" Henry stammered, looking down at the little girl.

"You are one lucky son of a bitch. That would be the Little Sister; she goes around with the Big Daddy and collects ADAM from the dead bodies of splicers and recycles it inside of her, in a slug that was implanted in her. ADAM is the genetic compound that makes plasmids work, and if you want to get out of here, you need it."

Henry paused, digesting what he had learned about the demon child in front of him. I scared him how much her long black hair reminded him of his sister's. "Okay, what do I do to get it?"

Victor was quiet for a long time. "Thank god Tennenbaum isn't here… Henry… you need to kill her."

Henry was frozen. "What?"

"You need the ADAM Henry, and there's no other way to get it right now. You have to reach inside of her and pull out the slug. It'll kill her, but you need the ADAM to survive."

Henry remained motionless. There, in front of him, was an innocent little girl. Despite looking like a horror monster, she was no more than a child, and a girl nonetheless. "No." Henry managed to faintly whisper. "No, I can't do this. Not a child, anyone but a child. I'll get the ADAM some…"

"No dice Henry. I'm sorry to say this… but you need to do it. She may try to run…don't let her."

Henry looked down at the blank-faced child in front of him. However, he made his choice. He took a gasp of air and reached down for the child slowly…

…and the child grabbed his hand. The child smiled and asked, "Where are we going now daddy?"

Henry and Victor were dumbstruck.

_ Next Chapter: I'm Not Your Daddy_

_ PS: Don't expect me to keep up this pace of one chapter a day, it's wrecking havoc with my other obligations._


	6. Chapter 6: I'm Not Your Daddy

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Six: I'm Not Your Daddy

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

_Dr. Yi Suchong, Lot 210, Client Ryan Industries. (Sigh) I am having great trouble trying to get Big Daddies to imprint on their Little Sisters. I have succeeded in at least having them learn to not harm the little ones, but no more. Still, Lot 210 is proving very effective in at least getting little girls to bond with the brutes. A combination of this pheromone soaking and early conditioning has had near 100% efficiency in causing Little Sisters to bind to the presence of the Big Daddy. Production of Lot 210 is being moved from Demeter's Garden Facility to Point Prometheus. I do not mind moving from this dump, too little space, too much maintenance. Ryan is taking special interest in pheromones. What is he planning?_

_-Dr. Yi Suchong, Audio Diary that Henry decided not to listen to_

Henry looked dumbfounded into the eyes of the little girl. They were completely devoid of fear; in fact, the girl looked like she trusted him completely. It was even more unnerving than the blank stare.

"Ummmmm… I'm not your daddy…" Henry managed to force out.

The Little Sister laughed. "Silly daddy! We need to mind angels. Come on!" With that, the little girl ran off towards one of the corpses.

"Wait, get back here!" Henry called out as he ran after her.

"Henry?" Victor eventually asked over the radio.

Henry stopped besides the Little Sister who had kneeled down and started jabbing her needle into a dead splicer's body. "Yeah Vic, for some reason she thinks I'm her daddy."

"I know… but that doesn't seem possible. It isn't just the sight of the suit that does it; some splicers tried that years ago and got torn to pieces. There's some sort of pheromone that the little girls respond to. Without it, you're just another 'bad guy.' When did you…"

But Henry had stopped listening. The little girl had pulled her needle out of the body and smiled up at him. _What was in that vat_? Henry asked himself, knowing the only possible answer.

"Oh god…now I just can't kill her. I just _can't_!" Henry yelled into his radio.

"Shh! You don't know who's around Henry. You still need that ADAM."

"I know, I know I need ADAM, but I can't get it from her. If there was some other way…"

"Does Mr. B need ADAM?"

Henry slowly turned to face the little demon-child staring up at him. She smiled, "Okay!" She drew the needle to her mouth. Placing her mouth on the vial potion, she started to heave. Like she was regurgitating there were disgusting retching noises coming from the little girl. Bright red liquid flowed into the vial, filling it up halfway. The little girl staggered for a second, but eventually stood up. She took a deep breath and held the needle up to Henry. "Here you go daddy."

There was silence for a long time. Eventually Victor said what was on both of their minds, "What the fuck?" Henry reached down and took the needle from the little girl. "Okay…okay we can work with this…" Victor continued over the radio. "How much ADAM is in there?"

Henry held up the vial. "It's about halfway full."

Okay, judging from the size of a typical Little Sister vial… Yes…No, that's still not enough. Damnit, and we're close too…"

Suddenly Henry had an epiphany. He kneeled down to the Little Sister and returned the needle to her waiting hands. "Hey, I don't need this right now. Do you think we can get more?"

"Okay daddy! There are always more angels." The Little Sister drank the ADAM in the vial, presumably storing it inside of her slug. She put the vial down and started to look around. She sniffed the air. "More angels this way Mr. B!" With that she tore off through the forest.

"Hey, wait up!" Henry called out following after her. The Little Sister ran off through the trees, her protector not far behind. Eventually, Henry broke through the tree line and into what appeared to be a restaurant covered in rose bushes. Red, white, blue, and even multi-colored roses looked down upon Henry and his Little Sister. The little girl had stooped down and started to jab her needle into a corpse impaled on foot-long spike protruding from massive rose vines.

"All right Victor, she's found another angel…I mean, corpse. Why do they call them angels?"

"Well, Dr. Suchong, the man responsible for the conditioning of the little girls, conditioned them to believe that corpses were actually angels, to prevent them from being disgusted. They're _still_ little girls."

"So, this Suchong made them?"

"No…um…that was the responsibility of…"

"Hold that thought Victor." Henry whispered over the radio as a long-limbed splicer climbed out from over the top of the restaurant. The splicer looked down upon the Little Sister, apparently alone, and smiled wickedly. With a horrifying yell, the splicer jumped down upon the Sister, two hooks glaring in the darkness. Suddenly, a large metal figure jumped out from the shadows and tackled the splicer to the floor. The Little Sister gave out a scream at being interrupted from her work.

The splicer looked up to see the foreign Big Daddy. Too spliced to care, it swung one of his hooks into the metal suit's side. There was a cry of pain and the Big Daddy reared up and slammed its fist into the splicer's head, cracking the skull.

Henry stood up, his hand clutching at the hook in his side. With a jerk, he pulled the hook out of his suit. Although it was covered with blood, Henry still felt able enough to stand fully erect. "Damnit, splicer jabbed a hook at me."

"That would be a spider splicer, annoying bastards to kill, or at least hit. You're lucky you spliced up."

"Yeah…I'm not as hurt as I thought I would be."

"That would be a side-effect of splicing. ADAM has a tendency to make your cells unstable but in return more resilient."

"That's help…" Suddenly another shout came out from behind him. Henry spun around to find two thugs running towards the Little Sister and a third leadhead leveling a pistol at him. Ducking to the side, he barely avoided the bullet from the pistol. Kneeling and leveling his Tommy gun, Henry took out the two thugs in a single sweep of fire. It pays to be a trained soldier down in Rapture.

As soon as he pointed the Tommy gun at the final splicer, a figure suddenly jumped on his back and started to hit Henry with a lead pipe. Each hit caused his helmet to ring like a bell, disorienting him. He suddenly rolled over, crushing the splicer beneath him. He could hear the Little Sister yelling, "Get him Mr. B!" as he slammed the back of the helmet into the splicer's face. This relaxed the splicer's hold long enough for Henry to stand up and smack the butt of the Tommy gun into the thug's face.

Suddenly a pistol round tore through his shoulder, sending a wave of pain up through his right side. He dropped the Tommy gun in his haste and rolled for cover, avoiding a rain of pistol rounds. Tearing off his left glove with his teeth, he snarled, "Think you can beat me that easily, huh?" He stood up leveling his arm at the splicer. With a twist of his forearm, the splicer was shocked by a bolt of electricity. By the time she regained control of her movements, she faced a large metal glove to the face.

All of the splicers were down for the count. With a grunt, Henry sat down against a pile of rubble and looked at his shoulder which was now sopping with blood. "All done now Mr. B." Henry looked up to see the Little Sister standing over the corpse she was harvesting for ADAM. She looked around, "But now there are so many more angels." With glee, she started harvesting the dead attackers. Henry sighed and stood, picking up the gun which he had dropped in the battle.

"You okay Henry?" Victor spoke over the radio.

"I'm a little wounded, but…" Henry said while rustling through the pockets of the dead leadhead splicer, "…I seem to have found a medical kit."

"Excellent! Make sure the Little Sister gets enough ADAM from the bodies."

Soon, the Little Sister approached Henry. "All done Mr. B."

"That was faster than I expected. Did you collect all of the ADAM?" The Little Sister nodded vigorously. "That's great. Let's find a Gatherer's Garden and you can give it to me, okay?"

"Okay daddy." The Little Sister said. She reached her hands up to Henry in the universal sign of, 'pick me up.' After a second's hesitation, Henry picked up the little girl and perched he on his shoulder.

"Do you know where the nearest Gatherer's Garden is?" The Little Sister nodded and pointed off into the woods. The two proceeded through the forest, the heavy boots crunching undergrowth as Henry passed. It was not long before Henry came across another clearing, much like the one he found the Little Sister in. In the center, wrapped in vines, was a still-functioning Gatherer's Garden. Henry put the little girl down and she began to regurgitate the ADAM.

"All right, I should have the plasmid soon." Henry spoke over the radio to Victor as he took the vial from the Sister's outstretched hand. "The vial is almost full."

"Great! You should have some ADAM left over for something else. Maybe a tonic like…"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm only splicing what I need. I'm not going to splice myself with every little plasmid or tonic I come across."

"I see… Well, you should have enough for Incinerate."

Henry placed the vial in the machine and pressed the button for Incinerate! There were whirrs and most of the ADAM was drained out. A door opened on the machine and a bottle of Plasmid solution was revealed. Henry took the plasmid and, after a moment of delay, injected himself with the plasmid. It was painful, yes, but it wasn't the same agonizing pain that caused him to black out earlier. After seconds, the pain subsided and Henry looked at the concerned Little Sister.

"Is Daddy going to be okay?" It asked him.

"Yeah." Henry replied, seeing the flames dance around his fingers, "Daddy's going to be just fine. Hey Vic, what do I do about the girl?"

"Bring her with you; I doubt she's going to leave you alone anyways. We have a way to save her without killing her at the Home."

"Okay." Henry picked up the girl, placed it on his shoulders, and backtracked to the Bathysphere station. There was a brief encounter with a thuggish splicer, but he proved no more than a test for the new plasmid. Leaving the smoldering corpse behind, Henry walked out of the forest and to the blocked station entrance which he promptly burned away.

As Henry looked into the black station, Victor said over the radio, "Get to the Fontaine's Home for the Poor Annex. I look forward to shaking your hand."

_Next Chapter: The Rebellion_


	7. Chapter 7: The Rebellion

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Seven: The Rebellion

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

In a dark corner of the City of Rapture, a Bathysphere emerged from the water in an abandoned, under-construction, service station. Construction materials were stripped away, leaving no more than what was necessary to keep the integrity of the station intact. The only ornament left was a vandalized sign saying NO TRESPASSERS. The bathysphere opened to reveal a large metal man with a tiny glowing-eyed figure on its shoulder.

As Henry walked out into the darkness, Tommy gun at the ready, the Little Sister whispered, "This is a bad place Mr B."

"It's going to be okay." Henry replied. Still, He held his gun up to his visor and bent his knees as if to storm a bunker. The entire hall was silent and bleak. Still, the tool marks and scuffs where items had been pulled off of walls or dismantled told a story of human habitation.

When they reached the end of the hall, a voice called out, echoing around the desolate structure. "Is that you Henry?"

Henry kept his gun up but still responded, "Vic! Nice to hear you in person."

There was a scuffle as a person jumped down from construction scaffolding and landed on the ground. Henry turned his flashlight towards Victor to see him in person for the first time. Victor Cobb looked like he did over the video screen, but in person he seemed far more pale. On a black and white screen, it was impossible to tell. He wore a white turtleneck sweater which was stained with blood in one or two places. In his dirty hands he held a M1 Garand rifle with a sniper scope attached. Otherwise, he looked normal, even though a little darkness shone in his eyes, a side effect of light splicing.

"Damn Henry it's good to see you." Victor said, lowering his weapon. "You do look just like a Big Daddy! You even smell like one. "Victor waved his hand in front of his nose while smiling heartily. "And this is the little one."

The Little Sister had grabbed onto Henry's helmet more tightly and gave a slight whimper of unease. "Don't worry, he's okay." Henry reassured her. "Vic, what's your brilliant plan for getting rid of the slug in her without killing her?"

"Technically, it's not my plan; our leader came up with it. No, not 'King John;' I mean the person that came back down here three years ago to save her beloved creations. Come on." With that, Victor unlocked the heavy doors out of the station and lead Henry out into the headquarters.

The headquarters looked less like a base of command than a shantytown. In the rubble of fallen pieces of construction equipment and scaffolding, sheets were hung up like tents. A small fire lit the center of the camp while smaller lights lit individual areas. Behind the closed canvasses, little shapes could be heard moving.

"Hey girls!" Vic called out, "Uncle Vic is home! And I brought a guest!"

Suddenly a torrent of little girls rushed out, laughing uproariously. Henry was thrown aback as each and every one, despite looking like the Little Sister on his shoulder, had normal child eyes. The little ones rushed around him, pulling at his hands and laughing incoherently. Henry's Little Sister held onto his helmet, amazed and afraid of the tumult around her.

After an eternity of yelling little children had their turn with Henry, he was able to look up and spy the other figure approaching him. She was old, 50 years at least. Her brown-grey hair hung down loosely, untrimmed for months. Her clothes were torn and worn and definitely out of style for modern wear. Still, she gave off an air that reminded Henry of his grandmother.

"Hello, Henry." The woman said in a level, calming voice. "My name is Brigid Tennenbaum. I am responsible for these little girls and their condition. That is why I am here to help them."

"Dr. Tennenbaum… I am… I really need to get out of here. I can understand and sympathize with what you are doing, but I really just need to get out of this city."

Tennenbaum nodded, "I understand Henry." She turned her attention to the Little Sister clutching Henry's helmet. "Ah…I remember you." She reached over to the Little Sister but the little girl jerked away. Tennenbaum smiled sadly, "The little ones…so sad their life is. I can save her Henry, if you give her to me."

Henry paused for a moment. Over the course of the time they shared together, Henry felt a sort of attachment to the Little Sister. Still, he nodded and handed the little girl to Tennenbaum, assuring her, "Don't worry; I'm not going to let her hurt you."

Tennenbaum cradled the little girl in her hands and smiled like a mother would smile at her own child. With one hand, she reached down to the girl's forehead. Suddenly, her arm started to glow brilliantly. Veins of red started to trace down her arm. The light grew brighter an brighter when finally, with a sudden climax of energy, Henry was temporarily blinded by the light emitted from Tennenbaum's hand. When he looked back, he saw the child, her eyes normal, her skin a more natural tone. The former Little Sister looked at herself and then up to Tennenbaum. "Thank you." It said and, after hugging Henry's leg, ran off and joined the other girls.

"What happened?" Henry asked, his mouth agape under his metal helm.

"I used a plasmid to kill the creature that was inside of her, the sea slug that causes her to crave ADAM and to gather more of it." Tennenbaum sighed. "My greatest triumph."

"I thought it was this Suchong fellow that created the Little Sisters?" Henry asked Tennenbaum.

Tennanbaum shook her head, still smiling sadly. "He may have been responsible for their conditioning, but I was the one who created them in the first place. I was the one who discovered the sea slugs at Fontaine Fisheries, it was I who made the first plasmids, and it was I who personally implanted the first Little Sister." A tear fell down Tennenbaum's face. "I am the mother of these creations. It is my own sin."

Victor chimed in, "I met Tennenbaum a few years back as she was leading a group of her children away from some splicers. I saved her life and I guess I just can't keep away from her. When Reemus rose to power, he started to take all of the Little Sisters that were under Lamb's control and taking control of them. Let me tell you, a mob of splicers is easier to deal with than his 'Soldier Splicers.'"

"And he can't find you here?"

"I suggested this place to Tennenbaum as her new safehouse. It was never connected to the main grid, so it's…"

Suddenly light flooded the large hall the camp was built in. Construction lights blazed to life; electricity poured into the forgotten corner of Rapture from a makeshift cable that was run from Fontaine Futuristics by its leader to make sure he retained control of the power.

"…undetectable" Victor finished, the color draining form his face.

Suddenly, from an old PA system roared to life. Victor's voice rang throughout the enlightened safehouse. "_…head to the Bathysphere station. Then, take the trip to the Fontaine's Home for the Poor Annex. It's under construction, so he shouldn't have control over anything down there… get to the Fontaine's Home for the Poor Annex. I look forward to shaking your hand…_" Victor was ghostly white as Henry looked over to him.

"Please, do you take me for some sort of imbecile?" John Reemus' voice echoed over the speakers. "Do you seriously think that I cannot hear everything you are doing? Do you seriously think that I do not know that you are doing? Do you not think I am that powerful? Well…your little attacks against me will be over with quickly. Say hello to Ryan for me."

The sound of Reemus' cruel laughter was accompanied by the sounds of a bathysphere docking at the station.

_Next Chapter: All Hell Breaks_

_P.S. - Time for this story to take a darker tone. This is where it REALLY begins…_


	8. Chapter 8: All Hell Breaks

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Eight: All Hell Breaks

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

The screaming din of splicers pouring into the Bathysphere station was cut off by a heavy metal door falling in front of its entrance. Victor ran from the lever he pulled back to Tennenbaum. "That's not going to stop Reemus." Victor told her, his heart viciously pounding.

"We need to get the little ones out of here." Tennenbaum said in a controlled fashion, though with her face as pale as a ghost.

"All right girls come on!" Henry called out, and all of the Little Sisters looked towards him. They started to gather around him as he turned to Tennenbaum. "Where to now?"

"There is another entrance, the construction material loading docks. It was also the first area constructed so…yes…there should be vents in place." Tennenbaum turned to Victor. "You and Henry hold them back, I'll bring the little ones to the other station."

"Roger." Victor confirmed, readying his rifle. Henry saluted and turned to face the door. Suddenly, the splicers' clamor stopped. Only the sounds of the little children running after Tennanbaum could be heard.

"Get to cover. Now!" Victor called out to Henry who was already five steps ahead of him. Ducking behind a fallen column, he set up a defense position. As soon as he had calmed his nerves and focused on the door, a large explosion ripped it off of its hinges. Dust and gravel were blown into the air as a multitude of shadows ran through the debris. Henry and Victor let loose their guns, cutting down the first row of splicers. Revolver shots rang in the din as leadheads started to pour through the gap.

"Victor, I'm out!" Henry called out, dropping his Tommy gun's magazine. Victor stopped firing long enough to toss Henry a magazine from a box next to him. Henry dimly noticed that it was marked with a black handprint. This was forced to the back of his head as a bullet nearly pierced his arm.

Despite having gunned down most of the splicers, they seemed to keep coming. Soon there were too many. Knocking a splicer out with the butt of his gun, Victor called out, "We're being overrun! Come on Henry!"

Under a hail of enemy fire, Henry ran with Victor, firing intermittently into the crowd of splicers. The suit dragged him down so that his movements were labored. The debris kicked up by the fight also turned his enemies into a blur of motion and violence.

And he found himself running through a swamp as all around him, Vietcong cut down his squad. It was him and an M16 against an unknown force against all odds. How the hell did he survive?

Henry snapped out of his attack of déjà vu just as he and Victor rounded a corner into what would have become a room for a poor family of Rapture. Slamming the door shut behind him, Henry zapped the control mechanism, frying the system. "Hurry up!" Victor called out as he clambered across a fallen wall and into a section of collapsed scaffolding. However, just as Henry jumped down to join him, a figure leaped onto hi helmet and tossed him to the side. He could see a pair of flashing hooks as je struggled to deflect the blows.

_Spider splicer_ Henry thought, swinging his Tommy gun in a wide arc over his head. Fortunately, the gun made contact with the assailant, knocking her to the side. The splicer leapt up and prepared to jump at Henry again only to be met by Henry's final rounds. "I'm out Victor!" Henry called out.

"I'm a little preoccupied!" Victor called back, shooting at the ceiling of the vast hall of another plaza. Looking up, Henry finally saw the legions of spider splicers crawling over the rubble and on the roof to get at them. He punched a splicer in the face as it tried to slash at his armor. Falling back, Henry cried out to Victor, "I need a new weapon here!"

"Sorry, but find your own damn weapon!" Victor swung his rifle in like a baseball bat, clubbing the nearest spider splicer and breaking its neck.

Henry rolled over to get up, only to spy something lying amongst forgotten construction equipment. He wasn't sure what it was, but it looked like a gun and he was desperate to try anything. He managed to lift the heavy contraption and aimed it at the nearest splicer. The recoil was intense, but it was incredibly satisfying to see a large rivet pierce the splicer's skull and drop it instantly.

"Nice rivet gun!" Victor called to Henry after smashing in the face of the final spider splicer. "No time for congratulations though." Just as the door that Henry had sealed burst open in a ball of fire, he and Victor were running towards the heart of the construction.

They soon arrived at what was to become the lobby of the new structure, now fallen into a state of incredible disrepair. It was difficult to tell it apart from the areas still under construction. Here, Tennenbaum was helping the last of the little girls into a tall bronze vent. "That is the last of them." Tennenbaum said, dusting off her hands. Her respite was short-lived, however, as machine gun rounds poured down upon them from approaching soldier splicers.

Together, Henry, Victor, and Tennenbaum ran towards the exit from the structre only to find that their way out was blocked. "Damn! Reemus must have gained control of the doors now! How are we to get out of here?"

"Maintenance!" Henry suddenly said. "If there are maintenance areas for places like the Odysseus Lodge, there has to be maintenance tunnels for a place like this."

"Why didn't I think of it?" Victor said, slapping his forehead. "There must be a maintenance tunnel entrance not too far from here. This _was_ the first place to be finished."

Victor and Henry lead the way as Tennenbaum started firing at any splicers that managed to get within firing range. Henry had to admire her ability; she was absolutely deadly with a pistol. After crossing through some sort of real estate office, the three had arrived at a maintenance door built into the wall of the building.

"Not a moment too soon." Henry said, turning to fry an approaching thuggish splicer with Incinerate. Victor pried the door open to reveal a long dark hallway. "No power, no Reemus." Victor said to Tennenbaum as he motioned for her to get inside.

She was about to when suddenly, amongst the chaos of splicers and gunshots, a lone child started crying. Tennenbaum turned to face a lone little girl in a ragged pink dress cry in the shadows. "Oh bitter, why are you still here?" Tennenbaum asked and rushed to her side.

As she ran back with the child, she was hit in the back by a lead pipe from a thuggish splicer that had slipped in through Henry's limited perhipheral vision. Still, Tennenbaum's cry caused Victor to swing around a loose one shot into the splicer's head. When Tennenbaum had gotten up, Henry had picked up the child and placed her on his shoulders. "I have the child. Go!" He called to Tennenbaum.

Victor and Henry rushed through the door with Tennenbaum close behind. Through the darkness they ran. They ran until the sounds of chaos died out behind them. Only after they were sure they were not being followed they relaxed. "We…we made it…" Victor choked out.

"Surprise." said John Reemus.

As Victor looked up at the PA system, the lights in the section of the hall flicked to life. However, they were joined by another light, a flashing red one. As if in slow motion, Henry pulled Victor back. The sight of intense fire reached his eyes. Then the concussive force of the explosion pushed him back. Then the intense shockwave of sound nearly blew out his eardrums.

Deaf and confused, he looked up to see Victor struggling to his feet. In silence, Henry saw Victor run towards a pile of debris that was not there before, yelling to the twisted metal. When Henry's finally hearing came back, he managed to make out Victor screaming, "Brigid! Are you there! Tennenbaum!"

Henry struggled to his feet and found the crying girl lying on her side. She wasn't outwardly wounded, but she was in a state of intense shock. Henry reached down and picked her up, cradling the little one in his arms.

Finally, Victor's calling paid off. On the other side of the debris, Tennenbaum called back, "I'm all right." Another explosion rocked the hall, this one from further back towards the annex.

Together, Henry and Victor scraped a hole through the rubble to see Tennenbaum on the other side. A large cut on her forehead oozed blood and there were many marks across her face. Dust and rubble made her face look a lifeless grey. "Is the little one safe?" Tennenbaum asked Henry.

"Yes she is."

Tennanbaum smiled. It was not the sad, pitying smile she had given before. It was a smile of relief and peace. She was absolutely serene.

A figure raised a pipe behind her.

The pipe was brought down.

Tennenbaum disappeared.

"TENNENBAUM!!!!!"

_Next Chapter: Painless_

_P.S. - May I direct anyone who has read this chapter to a good book called "Dealing with Character Death?" I told you it was going to get darker._


	9. Chapter 9: Painless

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Nine: Painless

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

"TENNENBAUM!!!!!"

Victor tried to force his way through the hole in the debris, but Henry pulled him back just in time to avoid a secondary collapse due to structural weakening. The sounds of the splicer attack became a muffled mess and then silence.

"Damnit Henry let me go! Tennenbaum!" Victor yelled at Henry as he held Victor back.

"Vic, this place is starting to collapse. If we stay any longer, we risk being crushed by another fall-in."

"Fuck you! I'm not going to just...!"

"We need to get the little one to safety. Would Tennenbaum want you to risk that child's life for her sake?"

Victor breathed heavily, his eyes darting between the child and the pile of rubble. Looking back at Henry he closed his eyes and said, "Damnit all." And turned away from Tennenbaum's resting place.

In silence, the two men and little girl made their way through dark halls. For what seemed like miles the two walked, one made silent by training, the other by grief. The little girl held onto Henry's helmet with a passion. She remained silent, knowing that right now was not the best time to voice her beliefs.

Soon, they came upon a door with light flowing out from under it. "Power." Henry said, breaking the silence that hung over them for a great time.

Victor stood put his ear to the door and, his cautiousness satisfied, pushed it open. The door lead to what appeared to be a basement storage area that had long ago collapsed in. A chair of sorts, still attached to the floor that caved in, bore a corpse in a rotting dress. The entire room seemed to be covered in snow, but closer inspection revealed it to be some sort of white residue that had dried up ages ago. Henry climbed up the fallen floor and into the room above, his newly-found weapon at the ready.

Much like the floor below it, this area was covered in white residue. A corpse lay on the floor in front of a desk that looked like had been ransacked. All around, dentistry equipment had rusted and been made unusable by the passage of time. Still, light shone from dusty light fixtures around the room.

"We're clear." Henry called down to Victor. In the light of the dentist's office, he could see the damage done to Victor. Sure, his cheek was bleeding and an arm of his sweater was ripped off, but his face also bore unmistakable sorrow and fury.

Walking over to a smashed window, Victor read the inscription on the remaining glass.. "_Painless_. It seems as though the whole world is mocking me."

"All right Vic, there's no time for this. Where are we?"

Victor sighed and hung his head. Taking a deep breath he replied, "Painless Dentistry. That means we're in the Medical Pavilion."

When Victor did not continue, Henry broke the silence by saying, "Vic, you know better than I that there are many people in this city with superhuman powers that are controlled by a madman that wants to kill us. Do you really think he's going to stop looking for us just because you're moping in the corner? Vic, I know, I'm depressed over Tennenbaum's…her…" Unable to find the right words, he put a gloved hand on Victor's shoulder and said, "She would want us to keep going, get this little one to safety."

Victor looked up and wiped tears from his eyes. Looking directly into the eyes of the little girl, he gave a painful smile, like Tennenbaum gave. "There is definitely a vent nearby. If we can put her in there, she can go into hiding in one of Rapture's many forgotten areas."

Henry nodded and both walked out of the dentist's office guns raised. The Medical Pavilion had fallen into a state of further disrepair. Ice had covered much of the walls save for a few areas blasted by Incinerate. The entire area was looted for anything salvageable: medical packs, hypos, snacks, even pipes.

The three made their way forward, towards a large staircase that was lit by sparse lights. However, as they approached the staircase, they suddenly heard footsteps.

"Guard the pavilion he says…guard the pavilion…have to obey…no question…guard it…" A strained voice came from above them but slowly faded away.

Suddenly an announcement blared over a rusted PA system. "This is a general command to all military personnel from your King." Reemus' voice caused Victor to twitch with displeasure. "If you find any little children, specifically girls, report them to your commanding officer immediately. For each that are turned in, a reward of a double rations bonus of ADAM will be granted. Remember, there are intruders in our city; be vigilant for a short Big Daddy accompanied by a man in a white sweater. This is your King, do not disobey me."

"I don't think he knows we're here." Victor whispered, mentioning Reemus' broadcast. "Still, we don't want to attract any guards." Henry nodded silently and placed his fingers in front of his face to convey that message to the little one on his shoulder. Victor chambered his remaining round into his rifle and slowly crept forward…

"WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF VALUES!!!!!" A voice suddenly blared out of nowhere. Spinning around, Henry saw that he had passed by a blue vending machine, similar to the machine in the Odysseus Lodge.

The obnoxious voice was quickly followed by another, "Who's there!?"

"Shit!" Victor yelled out, firing his last round into the head of the soldier splicer that peaked over the edge of the railing. The adrenaline in his blood making him breath heavily, he turned to the machine and cried, "I hate that fucking clown."

Henry stepped away from the machine which gave a nauseating laugh only to power down. "I'll take the lead; you need to get a new weapon, Vic."

"Just more ammo." Vic said, holding the rifle to his side. Sighing, he stepped towards the vending machine. "WELCOME TO…" the machine spouted out before Vic could rip off a plate in front of the machine and yank out a wire. After seconds of fiddling with the mechanics, Victor stood up and pressed a single button. Suddenly, a rain of cartridges fell out of the machine.

"If you want to get by in this city without paying, you need to learn to hack. "Vic said, attaching the cartridges to his belt. "Which I doubt you can do with those heavy gloves and all."

"Fine, you do the hacking." Henry replied. Both men walked up the stairs and into a large lobby area of the Pavilion. This area met a similar fate to the downstairs, but this seemed to be more reconstructed than below. Efforts were made to clear walkways. Construction near an entryway nearby indicated that the entire door was replaced.

But what truly interested Henry was the vent right across from him. He quickly reached up, picked up the little girl and helped her into the vent. Smiling, the little girl said, "Thank you Mr. B." With that, she departed.

Henry turned back and saw Victor looking up at the entryway that Henry had noticed earlier. Above it hung a dim sign, broked for who knows how long. But still, it retained a visible logo: DR. STEINMAN'S AESTHETIC IDEALS. Victor looked at it with fear and apprehension, clearly remembering something in his distant past.

"Victor?" Henry's question shook Vic out of his recollection. "How do we get out of here?"

"There's a bathysphere station on the other side of the pavilion, but if I know Reemus, that's completely locked down by now. The only other way out is, of course, back through the tunnel and to the Annex. Wait." Suddenly, Henry's face lit up. "I bet he hasn't taken the time to reprogram the genetic key to emergency access. If that's true…" Henry's face fell. "It should still be keyed…"

"Keyed…to who?" Henry asked.

Victor turned his attention back to the entryway. "Dr. J.S. Steinman, the mad doctor of Rapture. When Jack arrived, he killed Steinman and took his genetic key, allowing him to escape. Still, with the right tools," Victor said while pulling a syringe from his belt, "I might be able to jury-rig a genetic key. Then, it's only a matter of hacking the bathysphere controls and redirecting it to…" Victor spat on the ground, "Our _glorious_ King."

"And Steinman worked in Aesthetic Ideals?"

"Yes, and he was killed there too. Time to enter the lair of the beast." Victor placed the gun up to his shoulder and proceeded through the entryway, Henry close behind with his rivet gun at the ready.

The hall was leaking profusely. The glass ceiling was patched in some areas, but it was clear that the whole area had burst open some many years ago. Glowing coral lined the walls and a sort of red algae obscured the floor. Henry and Victor proceeded through this tunnel of life to the land of death.

The Aesthetic Ideals lobby had been marginally repaired, but nothing was done to clear a balcony that had collapsed and crushed a Circus of Values machine. "Serves it right." Henry muttered under his breath at the dead device. There was a pile of rubble near the entrance to surgery that had been cleared by an explosive charge.

Henry looked over at Victor who looked forward, his dark eyes fixed on the entrance to Steinman's workshop. _Lair of the Beast?_ He thought. _What could have happened in here?_

They travelled through the lobby and into a similarly decorated stretch of hallway. Water covered the floor and some scaffolding attempted to prop up a creaking ceiling.

Or was it the ceiling that was creaking?

"Vic, I think we're being watched." Henry whispered to Victor.

Victor stopped and turned his attention to the ceiling. Suddenly there was a scuffle but eventually nothing. "Whatever it is, it's gone." Still, Victor kept one eye on the roof as they continued.

They soon arrived at an unobstructed room, the main surgery hall. Henry was about to enter, only to discover Victor stalled outside, his face pale, his eyes seeing figures that were not there. "Vic?" Henry asked.

Victor shook his head. "I'm sorry, but there's something about this city that just brings out déjà vu in people."

Henry nodded, recalling his Vietnam War flashback. Victor took a breath and slid open the door to Steinman's workshop.

Under his helmet, Henry nearly vomited. _Lair of the beast is putting it lightly_.

_Next Chapter: Altar of Beauty_

_P. S. - I have received some complaints about Tennenbaum's fate._

_That is all…_


	10. Chapter 10: Altar of Beauty

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Ten: Altar of Beauty

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

The Altar of Beauty was the offspring of evil.

Blood dripped from nearly every conceivable crack. A large broken window looked out over the central death chamber. In a perverted religious fashion, three corpses were crucified, their agonized stares looking down upon a third corpse on an operating table. The shadows, the destruction, and the blood seemed to be in the perfect place for maximum disgust, as though its placement was guided by a carnal god.

Victor looked out over the land of destruction with a calm anger in his face. "Right," he said, his voice barely above a whisper, "Now we find the body."

Henry felt like asking _Which one?_ but the pure horror of the room stayed his tongue.

Victor and Henry descended by means of a staircase to the left of the large window. The smell of rotting flesh was lost on Henry, though the sterile absence of sensation scared him even more. The floor was coated in a layer of water that had seeped in over the years. The altar upon which the operating table sat was drenched in blood, but was otherwise left dry.

Henry looked around, noticing rusted bullet casings littering the floor. The majority of the rounds were Tommy gun shells, but there were also shotgun shells and pistol shells. Clearly, an army of soldiers had fought in here. _Or maybe just one really good soldier Henry_ contemplated, remembering the tales of Jack.

"Found the bastard." Victor said without emphasis, pointing at a corpse laying face-down in a pool of water. His orange surgical coat was stained with blood and decay. In his hand, a spent Tommy gun had rusted into oblivion. Victor bent down over him and removed the hypo. "Give me a second." He said as he jabbed the hypo into Steinman's arm. Rotten tissue slowly started to fill the hypo, though among the deceased flesh a semblance of genetic structure remained.

Victor stood upright and pocketed the hypo. "Now we need a computer bank, preferably a medical one."

"Well, lucky us." Henry said, his hands spread wide, indicating the dead doctor's office.

Victor gave another sad smile. "Maybe his office area is somewhere in here. Look behind fallen debris, cabinets, everything. You don't know what rooms you can expose."

"Or what rats you can unearth." A voice spoke from over the PA.

Victor and Henry pointed their guns around at the ceiling as the voice of John Reemus continued, "I thought I made it clear with the explosion that you are all supposed to _die_. No matter, you are cornered now and running low on ammunition. No exit can save you now."

His last sentence ended with a sudden alarm ringing out over the PA. Victor turned to Henry, "Splicer's will be here any minute! We've got to find some sort of defenses!"

Henry and Victor redoubled their search as the distant sounds of chaos grew nearer. In desperation, Henry smashed his fist into the wall. The wall gave way and revealed a hidden compartment. Victor looked over and shouted, "Luck is on our side yet again!" as he ran at the compartment.

When he emerged he carried out what appeared to be an office chair. However, a quick pull of a lever caused a machine gun turret to snap up from its side. "Let me hack this so it won't fire on us. Go find anything else."

Henry emerged, calling out, "Will this do?"

Victor looked up from the turret whose light had just switched from red to green. His eyes widened with wondrous astonishment. "That'll do."

Bursting through the lobby of Aesthetic Ideals, the splicer mob yelled with mad exuberance. Smashing tables, overturning desks, and crushing anything that got into their way, they forced their way to surgery.

In the crowd, a splicer that had long forgotten her name squealed with the thought of promised ADAM. _We kills the guy…we gets the ADAM…gotta kill him_ was all that raced through her mind.

She pushed her way to the front of the pack as they arrived at the door of surgery. Laughing with insane confidence, she broke open the door…

…only to be mowed down by .50 caliber rounds.

By the time the first splicer dashed into the room, Henry had the Gatling gun ready to fire. In a continuous stream of bullets, much like the German bunkers on Omaha, Henry gunned down anyone that came too close. Beside him, Victor picked off any splicer that managed to avoid or survive the stream of fire.

"Reload." Henry called out to Victor. As Victor stooped to reload the massive weapon, Henry picked up his Rivet gun and fired into the crowd. Some made it to the door into surgery, but only to be struck by the turret Victor had set up.

"Good." Victor called back and picked up his rifle. Henry kneeled down and resumed his duties as suppressive fire.

This sequence happened once more before the splicer army had been decimated. Victor let out a sigh of relief and lowered his rifle. "Damn that Reemus doesn't know when to give up."

"That's because I haven't been defeated." Reemus spoke over the PA. "I have one little surprise for you. I had hoped that I would not to call this thing out but…" And Reemus' voice faded away. Silence reigned in the chamber of death.

Henry whispered to Victor, "How many bullets do we have left?"

"We have… one more clip."

"I think we're going to need it." In a state of hyper-awareness, Henry slowly knelt to the gun. His eyes darted around his field of vision, limited though he was. His ears strained for the slightest noise._ But what splicer could…_

Just as Henry thought this, there was slink from above. Victor blanched and hissed, "The ceiling!"

Victor leapt to the side, closely followed by Henry as a tall metallic figure fell from the ceiling, crushing the corpse. Henry looked up from his position on the flooded floor and beheld the demon itself. Red light poured like hellfire from the beast's face. The rest of the body was slender, though augmented by bars of steel and straps of leather. On one arm, a massive needle protruded, shining in the harsh light of surgery. The figure stood crouched, like a beast about to pounce upon a helpless woodland animal.

The monstrosity lifted its other arm and Gatling gun rose into the air. With a clench of its fist, the demon forced the weapon to be crushed beyond all use. The gun was tossed directly at Victor, who had jumped to his feet. The weight of the weapon and the force of the toss caused Victor to be flung into a section of cabinets.

All the time, Reemus' voice rang over the PA, sharp with cold fury. "If there is one thing that Lamb was useful for, it was her…_defense_ mechanisms."

The demon looked directly into Henry's face and screamed.

_Next chapter: Lamb's Legacy_


	11. Chapter 11: Lamb's Legacy

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Eleven: Lamb's Legacy

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

_Well ladies and gentlemen, I'm back to pick up where that little cliffhanger left off. Where were we… oh yeah, Henry and Victor are doomed…_

Henry fell backwards as the metal demon landed on his chest, its red eyes staring directly into his own. The creature lifted the long needle imbedded into its arm and brought it down on Henry. Raising his arm, he caught the needle and, despite the demon's superior strength, managed to force it off of his body. The demon rolled and stood up abruptly mere feet away.

The turret had clicked to life, firing rounds into the Big Sister. With a flick of its wrist, the demon levitated the turret and flung it against the wall, shattering into pieces. Again, it turned towards Henry who had frozen in shock.

Henry forced himself up, grabbing the rivet gun that had fallen next to him. By the time he had picked up the heavy contraption, the demon had leapt up onto Steinman's altar and began launching a hailstorm of fire upon Henry's head. Henry's metal armor shielded him from the brunt force of the attack, but the scalding ferocity with which the demon hurled the fire caused him to seek cover, his metal arm covering his face.

He threw himself down a flight of stairs and into a deeper pool of water. His head barely sticking above the water's surface, he could see the demon jump down from its perch and raise its needle.

His glove already off his hand, Henry raised a glowing blue fist at the creature.

"NO!" A hoarse Victor Cobb called out from nearby. Henry and the demon turned to face Vic who had pushed the destroyed Gatling gun from his body. Blood streamed down his face as he called, "You'll kill us all."

In his haste, Henry had forgotten that the same water than now covered the demon's feet also fed the pool of water that Henry was sitting in and Victor was lying in. Swearing under his breath, Henry put down his hand and lifted the heavy rivet gun.

The demon back flipped away as Henry let loose a stream of rivets from the weapon. As the demon launched itself into the air, one rivet hit the beast. It screamed as the rivet pierced the armor on its leg but did no more. Such a shot would cripple a normal man.

_Then again_ Henry thought only to be interrupted by the demon launching itself at Henry from the opposite wall. He ducked under the water as the demon soared overhead, righting itself quickly. Henry tossed himself out of the water and, walking backwards up the stairs, resumed firing at the demon.

Despite the rivets that now tore through the demon's body, it ran up at Henry. Before he could do anything, the demon leapt on top of him and jabbed the needle into his body. Henry gasped with pain as it felt like his life was seeping out of him. His started to feel faint.

Then a rifle shot ricocheted off of the demon's helmet. Turning, it spotted the upright figure of Victor Cobb, rifle in his hands. The demon leapt off of Henry and ran at Victor who fell to the side, still firing. Henry staggered upright, clutching at the bloody tear in his suit. Still, he could feel some force in his body trying to mend it as his unstable genes got to work.

Meanwhile, Victor had staggered to the center of the room by the time the demon got close enough to strike. With a might swing of its fist, the demon sent Victor hurtling onto the staircase leading up to Steinman's altar. With a great scream, the demon raised its needle once more.

Suddenly a metal-gloved fist came out of nowhere and smacked into the demon's face. Under pressure already, the glass that served as a visor cracked, obscuring its vision. It staggered backwards, clutching at its face.

"Hey bitch!"

The demon turned upwards to the sound of the voice. All it could make out was two figures out of the water, the larger with a glowing blue light surrounding its hand. Suddenly a bolt of energy shot out of the figure.

As though pulled by some unseen force, the demon was yanked upright, screaming to the uncaring ceiling. Its body weakened by physical exertion and multiple wounds, the demon finally gave up and softly fell into the water. Electricity played around the body for a moment before the red light faded into darkness.

Henry panted and sunk to the floor, the energy taken out of him. Beside him, Victor had pulled out a candy bar and started eating it.

"I have never had to face… one of those before." Victor forced out of wheezing lungs. "Lamb made them, the Big Sisters."

"Really?" Henry asked standing again, his hand still clutched firmly over the Big Sister's attack. "Well…I hope he doesn't have any more up his sleeve."

Victor shook his head. "Most are probably dead now. This must've been the last one. Go see if you can find anything off of those corpses upstairs, I'll take this creature." He motioned to the Big Sister.

Henry nodded and trudged upstairs. Sighing, Victor hoisted himself up and walked to the corpse of the Big Sister. After searching the body for anything useful, he managed to extract a small vial of ADAM from the needle and some dollar bills which had been tucked in the cage on her back.

He stood up and…

_"But Dr. Steinman, you said I would be pretty. You said I would be the best of all of them. Will I?"_

_ "When you awake, I promise you will be the greatest work of art since Aphrodite."_

_ "For Victor?"_

_ "For the world…"_

"Vic?"

The grainy images faded away as Victor Cobb stood staring at the operating table. Henry had come back down with any ammunition and weapons he could carry. Hanging from his belt was a brand-new Tommy gun. "Are you okay Victor? You seemed… withdrawn."

Victor turned back to the room where they had found the Gatling gun. "We must have found Steinman's office. He should have a medical computer in here." He turned in and started to search in the back of the forgotten room.

"Vic, what happened there?" Henry asked, following him. "You looked like you were watching something for a moment there."

"You'll see them too soon enough." Victor said under his breath. "Here it is." He lifted a board from the back of the room which had obscured what appeared to be a computer console straight out of old B-list sci-fi movies. Inserting the sample of Steinman's blood into a slot in the computer, he started to mess with the wires, trying to reconnect a broken circuit.

Henry watched silently as Victor started mumbling to himself. He looked back at the women hanging above the altar. He remembered Victor's reaction to the sight of the entrance. He remembered the sad, almost fearful look in Victor's eyes as he stared at the altar.

Turning to face Victor, Henry asked, "What was her name?"

Victor stopped in the middle of reconnecting a wire. There was a brief moment of stifling silence. "Audrey." He responded.

_Next Chapter: The Life of Victor Cobbs_


	12. Chapter 12: The Life of Victor Cobbs

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Twelve: The Life of Victor Cobbs

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

_July 1958_

"Victor, what is it?"

A younger Victor Cobb looked up from the floor of his apartment at Audrey Schelling. A strand of blonde hair hung down her face as she looked back down at him, still wearing his greased-stained clothes after a hard days work.

Victor sighed and glanced down, "I know… now not be the best time…"

"Victor, there's no need to be on the ground like that." Audrey giggled. Her smile was astounding. People would come to her and ask if she was a Steinman masterpiece. She would just laugh and say that she was just born this way.

Victor looked back up at his girlfriend. "No, I do." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a simple box, no larger than a matchbox. Looking back, he saw a drop of water fall onto Audrey's forehead. Looking up at the leak, he made a mental note to fix it later. He looked back at Audrey and held up the box.

"Audrey," he asked, opening the ring case, "would you marry me?"

Audrey gasped and took the ring. "Victor," she whispered, admiring the diamond, "You shouldn't have…but…your wife…"

"Audrey, I know that living for someone else is against everything we came down here for. I know that people just don't get married down here. But…can it be our little secret…if not for each other, then for ourselves? Our own selfish desires?"

Audrey looked back at Victor with a strange expression. Victor tried to make it out: _Is she happy? Is she sad? Why should she be sad? Did I do it wrong? Is she confused?_

However, he smiled when she responded, "Yes, yes I will."

_September 1958_

"Fontaine's been taken out." Victor said over the top of the latest copy of the _Rapture Standard_.

"What?" Audrey asked incredulously from the bathtub of their apartment. "You mean the plasmid guy?"

"Yes. Apparently, he was tied to the smuggling ring. I knew it all along, the bastard. Ryan says that his security forces are going through the building and looking for any other evidence to link him to the recent string of murders in Apollo Square."

"That's awful. What's going to happen to his business?"

"I don't know." He finally said, putting the newspaper down. "I think control passes on to the next largest shareholder. If the _Standard_ is correct, then some researcher by the name of Gail Alexander will be in charge soon. Well, another damn thing happens in this damn city."

He watched as three water droplets fell from the ceiling and landed on the newspaper. He looked up at the patch of roof that was leaking profusely. _I could have sworn I patched that up last month_ he thought.

"Audrey, I think we should go to Arcadia. You know, see the sights and such. It'd be nice, wouldn't it? Darling? Audrey?"

The silence from the bathroom caused Victor to stand up, walking across the newspaper and into the bathroom.

"Audrey?!"

He stopped at the sight of his spasming wife.

_November 1958_

"Mr. Cobb?"

Victor rushed into the room as the nurse called his name. Still wearing the dirty overalls from his job, he answered, "Yes?"

"Dr. Verne will see you now."

Victor nodded and walked through the door of the doctor's office. Inside, a physician in an impeccable suit was looking at a picture hung over his desk. He turned and wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant aroma of the common laborer that had walked into the room.

"Mr. Cobb." The doctor gruffly said, sitting down behind his desk. He pulled out and started looking through a folder marked SCHELLING, AUDREY. "Since you are listed in her insurance as her advocate in case of an emergency, we have called you here on the matter of her condition."

"What is it Dr. Verne?"

"It's an interesting condition that we're seeing more often down here. I've named it Hershey's disease after the first patient that I diagnosed. I've written many papers on the…"

"Doctor," Victor interrupted, "What is it?"

The doctor frowned at Victor's interruption but answered, "Hershey's Disease. It's a virus that's transmitted by ingestion primarily, sharing of fluids secondarily. It attacks the spinal column, and the fluid around it, disrupting the flow of signals to the rest of the body. Essentially it causes a complete loss of control to the lower body. If left unchecked, it will reach the brain and start breaking down higher functions."

Victor stared at the doctor silently.

"Now, have you had sexual relations with Ms. Schelling?"

"What?" The impersonal manner in which the doctor asked this personal question threw Victor off guard.

"Have you had a sexual relationship with Ms. Schelling?"

"Yes…Yes I have."

The doctor nodded and exhaled softly. "We'll need to start you on a medical regimen immediately. If you haven't started showing symptoms, then we might be able to beat this with conventional drugs. In the case of Ms. Schelling… her case is far more advanced."

"You mean…" Victor stammered, the color leaving his face, "she's going to…die?"

"Absolutely not." The doctor's frank response threw Henry off guard again. "We have been doing many great things with ADAM lately, specifically in the field of medicine. We believe with ADAM treatments and regular doses of ADAM for the next few months, we believe she can survive with no damage at all."

Victor shot out of his chair, his heart racing. "All right, start it."

The doctor narrowed his eyes at Victor, "Her insurance does not cover it. She will be unable to pay…"

In his haste, Victor spoke over the doctor, saying, "I'll pay, no matter the cost."

The doctor paused, looking Victor up and down for a while. Victor stood there panting. Eventually, the doctor replied, "Sign here."

_December 1958_

"You look beautiful." Victor reassured Aubrey as they stepped into the restaurant.

Audrey just nodded, he face obscured by a bunny mask. Underneath, her beautiful face now seemed different, darker. Ever since she had been released from the hospital, she had lost the light that was in her face. Often Victor had walked in on her in the bathroom, gazing into the mirror without a single sense devoted to the world around her.

Under his own matching bunny mask Victor frowned. He thought that bringing her to a party would liven her up like the old days, make her happy again, make her laugh.

Audrey leaned over, "I need to use the ladies' room." Victor nodded and they broke arms as she made her way through the crowd.

Victor sighed and headed downstairs. Someone was in the corner, banging away at a piano. _Probably never played a piano before tonight_ he thought. _Piano Prodigy, make the artists feel pointless by being batter than them after one application_. People were laughing over at a table covered in alcoholic drinks. In a corner under a large statue of the titan Atlas was a woman at a table, obviously waiting for someone. Sighing, she pulled out an audio diary and pressed record.

Victor looked up at a sign proclaiming HAPPY NEW YEAR 1959 in red letters. He sighed and turned to face…

An explosion tore him off his feet. Shouts and gunshots could be heard all around the restaurant. Disoriented, Victor stood upright. Men and women in costume were panicking as men and women, also wearing masks, ran into the Kashmir Restaurant and started firing random shots and shouting battle cries such as, "Down with Ryan!" and "For Atlas!"

_Audrey_. One thought pushed the fog from his mind as adrenaline coursed through his veins. Fighting through the throng, he ran back upstairs towards the restrooms.

A splicer at the top of the stairs raised a revolver and proclaimed, "LONG LIVE ATLAS!"

Victor responded with an uppercut to the jaw. The splicer tumbled over the balcony and into the screaming crowd of partiers.

He forced his way across the upper floor, ditching his mask as he went. He rushed into the ladies room, pushing aside what appeared to be a sobbing actress as he saw Audrey huddled on the floor. He pulled her up and pushed her into a stall. Slamming and locking the stall behind him, he knelt down to his love. "It's all right, everything will be okay." he said over and over as outside the panic continued.

_January 1959_

_Congratulations Mr. or Mrs. Citizen Rapture!_

Victor stopped the tape there, not interested in hearing what drivel the marketing executives at Sinclair Solutions wanted to pour into his ear. He immediately reached into the box that he had received in the mail earlier and pulled out a shotgun. He quickly loaded it and placed the other rounds in a belt that he made for himself at a U-Invent.

As his eyes scanned over the other contents of the box, it rested on what appeared to be a plasmid vial. He slowly reached in and pulled it out, the red liquid glinting in the shaky lights of his apartment. The vial, marked Electrobolt, seemed to call out to him. With a great deal of self-constraint, he placed the vial back into the box and turned away.

Navigating around the buckets on the floor that caught the seawater that now caused the sparse apartment to smell like salt, he made his way into the bathroom. There, sitting in an empty bathtub, was a shell of his love.

Audrey stared into space, he face now notably disfigured. Her cheeks puffed out and her eyelids drooped. A single greasy blonde hair hung over her forehead. Her face was dark and sad, detached from the real world yet noting everything.

Victor brushed the hair out of Audrey's face and handed her a revolver. "Keep this on you in case I need to go out. You need to defend yourself. Will you be all right Audrey?"

Audrey was silent for a moment before saying, "Do you think I'm pretty, Victor?"

Victor lowered his head, having answered this question many times before. "Yes, I think you're wonderful."

Audrey turned away, "You're just saying that."

Sighing, Victor took hold of her shoulder and softly pulled her to face him. "Audrey, I don't care if you are as beautiful as an angel or as ugly as sin. I _love_ you. Nothing can stop that."

There was silence for a moment and Audrey responded, "But do you think I'm pretty?"

Victor silently stood up and walked out of the room.

_February 1959_

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!"

Victor strained against two doctors as he struggled across the lobby of Aesthetic Ideals. A nurse stood up from behind her station and stood in his way. "Sir, calm down, the doctor is busy."

"YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! WHERE IS SHE?!"

With furious strength, Victor yanked his hand out of one of the doctors' grip and slammed his fist into the other's face. He grabbed the shotgun that hung at his side and, before anyone could react, pointed it at the nearest of the doctors. "YOU TAKE ME TO HER!"

Suddenly a figure stepped behind him and grabbed the shotgun. So silently he came that Victor was shocked into letting go.

Dr. JS Steinman, in clean orange surgical uniform and with bright white smile, said to Victor Cobb, "And you are?"

Victor lunged at the doctor but a doctor and the nurse restrained him. "YOU SICK FUCK, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?"

The doctor smiled and looked down at the shotgun. "You mean Ms. Schelling? Ah yes, I remember her well. She walked to me and asked me to make her beautiful. She asked us to make her beautiful. I could not resist her persistence." He turned and apparently started talking to himself. "Oh Aphrodite, we tried. We tried out hardest. But she was just… too…" He looked back at Victor, "…symmetrical."

Victor stopped struggling, all of the energy drained from his body. The man doctor continued, "We did all we could, be she just wouldn't work. We tried. I tried. She was just a hopeless cause, another failure." By this time the doctor had stopped smiling, but his energy had built into a mad crescendo. "But we will find her Aphrodite. She will be the perfect one. I will make everything… perfect."

Victor's feet gave way, his thoughts still lingering on what Steinman implied. The mad doctor turned back again and started walking towards the entrance to surgery. The doctors and nurse followed him in. As the door shut behind him, Steinman waved and said, "I'll bill you later."

Victor flung himself at the door and slammed his fist into it repeatedly. "GET BACK OUT HERE! GET OUT HERE YOU MONSTER!" He slammed his now bleeding fists on the door several more times before finally falling back. Behind him, a vending machine sensed the presence of a potential customer and laughed. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Victor wildly cried, throwing himself at the machine. She broke down into tears, the machine laughing, mocking his existence.

_November 1971_

Stone faced, Victor walked into the lobby of the Medical Pavilion and headed down the stairs. In one hand, his rifle; in the other, a genetic key. Henry silently walked alongside him, his rivet gun in his hands. The tale had finished, the two remaining sane people walked through the same halls the story occupied over twelve years ago.

Henry broke the silence by saying, "I see."

Victor nodded, his mind turning away from the sad memories. As they walked into Emergency Access, Victor had resumed leading Henry. "Now we just Open Emergency Access and reprogram it to take us to Hephaestus. There, we sneak into Atlantis Utilities and kill Reemus. Then we find you a way out."

Henry nodded as they ascended the steps. Emergency Access had remained largely intact save for rust damage. At the top, the access panel was still in working order. Brushing aside cobwebs, Victor inserted the homemade genetic key and flipped the switch.

A static-garbled computer voice softly said, "Access granted." And the door to the bathysphere opened up. Victor sighed and said, "After you." gesturing to the door.

Henry walked through the door and, after making a quick check for any surprises, motioned for Victor to follow. As Victor passed him into the bathysphere, Henry saw that Victor seemed slightly lighter, as though a weight had been lifted off his chest. Henry chuckled briefly under his helmet and followed Victor into the bathysphere.

The bathysphere descended, water covering the viewing plate. As Henry Looked out into the station tunnel, Victor knelt to the level and pulled off a panel in front. After yanking a few wires, the bathysphere lurched, the lights dimmed, and the engine seemed to flutter. However, this was brief and the two men soon found themselves redirected to the center of the city.

Victor sat on the cushioned couch that was built into the wall of the bathysphere. "I've routed a route that takes us in the shadows of a few buildings and away from areas with power. We don't want Reemus to catch us."

Henry jokingly responded, "Yeah, because our efforts at hiding last time were so…" However he froze as a silent black object rounded a building. Henry's heart thumped in his chest as he saw the outlines of a torpedo lock onto their bathysphere.

"VIC!" Henry yelled as he ran to the lever. Victor was started upright and, upon seeing the torpedo, followed Henry to the controls. He started to pull wires and reconnect them, but the process was far slower than the now glowing yellow torpedo. Henry, in deperation, slammed his body into the side of the bathysphere.

The bathysphere lurched to the right, barely avoiding the torpedo. However, it exploded behind the submersible, killing the lights and flinging the small transport hurting through the water. Henry grabbed a hold of Victor and braced himself as the bathysphere was sent hurtling into a nearby building.

_Next Chapter: Prosperity Peak_


	13. Chapter 13: Prosperity Peak

Atlantis Risen

Chapter Thirteen: Prosperity Peak

Note: I do not own _Bioshock_ nor any related copyrights such as Rapture, ADAM, EVE, Brigid Tenenbaum, and other such related concepts and names.

Slowly, Henry opened his eyes. The bathysphere was dark, yet from the viewport a light shown. The bathysphere had crashed face-first into the side of one of the large buildings and lodged into a large window face. The room beyond the bathysphere appeared to be some sort of two-floor lobby that was once decorated in pure gold. Now, anything that glittered was taken away, but signs of the glamour the room once held remained in the remaining architecture.

Henry looked down at Victor who had been shielded in Henry's arms. Victor looked back, a bruise across his forehead. Victor shook his head and said, "Damn. At least we're alive."

Henry chuckled and looked up. Under his metal helmet, his face paled. "Victor, why do we always speak too soon?"

Victor frowned and looked up too. His eyes widened as he saw the jets of water that were spurting from the sides of the bathysphere's indent in the window and heard the groan of failing support.

"Out!" Victor called, pulling the manual release for the bathysphere viewport. The door swing open and Henry, pushing Victor in front of him, dashed out. More jets of water sprung from the window and landed on Henry's back as the spidery cracks spread along its face.

Victor dashed up the stairs as Henry, laden with his heavy armor, trudged behind. In front of the pair was an exit that lead out into a large hallway, unlit but still safer than this death trap. Victor dashed through the entrance only to see Henry fallen behind. "Hurry up!" Victor called out, wildly waving his hand for Henry to follow him.

In a burst of speed, Henry flat-out ran towards the door. Suddenly, an alarm sounded. A yellow light was illuminated at the top of the exit. Just as Henry reached the exit, a large heavy bulkhead descended in front of him. He barely saw the bolded word SECURIS before he slammed into it. He recovered, turned around, and faced the massive shattering of the window.

The force of the Atlantic Ocean tossed Henry into the bulkhead for a full minute. He struggled against the ocean, but there was no stopping this force of nature. Finally the pressure subsided and Henry slowly fell to his knees.

He looked up from his kneeling position to see the entire lobby flooded with sea water, stools and tables floating lazily. Looking down at his arsenal, he saw that his Tommy gun had been wrenched out of his belt and was not likely somewhere, drenched beyond use. Still, his massive rivet gun still seemed functioning and, thanking and cursing his fortune, Henry stood up.

Once again, Henry felt light as he walked down the stairs. He almost jumped down the entire flight he felt so free. Reaching to bottom, he looked out of the destroyed window. Dark buildings made up the skyline from this face of the building, but a red glow could still be seen in the distance.

Going over to the window, he looked out into the Ocean. Even with the buoyant forces suspending him, a fall from his current position would still likely break a few bones, at least. But that was not the focus of his attention. The side of the building seemed to be made of a decorative lattice, spaced similar to ladder rungs. One floor up, he could see what appeared to be an alcove.

Taking a look down, Henry thought _If I could handle heights, I would have joined the Air Force_. Seeing no other way out, however, he climbed over the bathysphere and leapt onto the side of the building.

The climb was surprisingly easy. Despite lugging his heavy suit, the water made him feel almost completely weightless. Still, halfway to the alcove, Henry suddenly felt a disturbance behind him. He turned, hitting the hearing module on the side of his helmet to activate it. The disturbance turned into a loud moan, then a dark shape, before finally materializing as a massive whale swimming through the streets of the sunken city.

The whale swam by, not paying any attention to Henry as he hung onto the side of the building. As it swam by, Henry was almost pulled from his grasp on the building. Regaining control, Henry pulled himself to the side of the building and weathered the whale's wake.

_When I get back, I'm getting a topside job_ Henry thought to himself as he pulled himself up to the alcove.

Standing on the alcove was what appeared to be a large rocket launcher, though made with roughly assembled pieces rather than factory-grade metals. Behind the torpedo launcher was a plate riveted into place. _Hope this leads inside_ Henry thought as he trudged over to it.

The rivet wasn't going anywhere without help, so Henry pulled his rivet gun up to the side of the plate and pulled the trigger. The forge of the rivet created a buckling in the side of the plate. Using the gun as a lever, Henry forced the plate open.

Water flooded the inner chamber and Henry was washed in with it. He picked himself off the ground just in time to see a bulkhead seal the external entrance to the alcove. He pushed himself up and flipped the light on his suit.

He was apparently in another maintenance area. It was much similar to the many other maintenance tunnels he had met previously, but there was one main difference. Through the hearing module, he could hear in the distance the soft hum of an electrical motor. Through his helmet's viewplate, he could see artificial light in the distance. Someone had turned on the power.

Henry shouldered the rivet gun and proceeded towards a door from under which he could see a pool of light. He slowly opened the door to reveal a staircase. Suddenly, in the distance, he could hear the sounds of yelling and gunfire. A rifle could be distinctly heard amongst the chaos.

Henry pushed down the staircase, his heart beating, and threw open the maintenance door at the bottom.

The magnificent hall must have been a sight to see in days of old. Massive arches suspended a glass ceiling through which swimming fish could be seen. A that must have once hung in the middle of the room had crashed to the ground, pieces of glass scattered around it. In the far back of the room, a massive vault adorning the statement WEALTH AND PROSPERITY loomed over the chamber. In front, desks much like those of a bank's were set up. In the middle, a large platform held aloft a brass hand gripping a giant chain in its fist. The plaque below was made unreadable due to time, but the entire structure gave off the air of an altar to wealth.

Henry turned his attention to the splicers that now ran at a white-cloaked figure whose back was against the wall. Henry lifted his rivet gun but the splicers were too far away for an accurate shot. However, there was a clap of thunder, a trail of smoke from the figure's hand, and a massive explosion threw back the crowd of splicers.

Henry brought the rivet gun down and started jogging towards the figure. Brushing the sweat form his brow, Victor turned and saw the large metal figure running towards him. He lifted the grenade launcher in his hands and called out, "Henry!?"

"It's okay!" Henry called back, lifting his free hand. "It's me. Where did you find _that_?"

Victor chuckled and held up the grenade launcher. "Wrenched it off of a splicer that didn't understand what he had. Never go anywhere without one I say. Looks like someone restored power to this dump."

"Reemus?"

"If he did I don't see why. This place was Prosperity Peak, the Rapture's piggybank. Ryan Security maintained the bank up until the Civil War. Sure there's still a lot of money left in the vault, but Reemus doesn't need money. Someone else is powering this place."

"So, any idea where to go from here?"

"Actually, I think this helped us more than it hurt us. You see that vault? It isn't just a big wallet. Ryan put a rapid transit elevator that stretches from here all the way to the underground network of tunnels that runs under Rapture. In my business, I had to use those tunnels form time to time. I know for a fact that, using those tunnels, we can get all the way from here to Hephaestus without putting us at risk of another attack."

"Makes sense. All right, let's go." Both men lifted their guns and proceeded towards the altar of wealth.

_ Next Chapter: The Altar of Wealth_


End file.
